Aliens Exist
For a while now, I’ve been thinking about GinaMarie. I mean, sooner or later I’m going to have to address her hysterical reaction to Nick’s eviction in a comedic manner, right? I’d probably call the piece Heart of Glass, making incisive allusions to that song by Blondie.[1] Maybe I would try to swing an exclusive interview with Nick’s coffee mug or something. These kinds of things write themselves.
However, I’m not going to do that.
When I watch GinaMarie cry, I sincerely feel sad for her. And I don’t feel sad because she has substantially misinterpreted the nature of her relationship with Nick, and looks like a chump on TV; it’s not pity. I feel sad for her because she, without warning, lost the guy who she is so unabashedly infatuated with, a guy who—as it turns out— was beginning to like her too.
Yeah, you heard right: According to our JokersUpdates interview with Nick, what started out as strategy transformed ever increasingly into real sentiment. He was hesitant to classify it as romantic, but avers that he considers her as more than a “friend.” And this occurred in spite of his wary disposition towards women, fearing they would facilitate his doom.
So GinaMarie is right—too bad absolutely no one believes her! Everyone thinks that her delusional fixation for Nick has her on a one-way track towards Stanton Island’s finest mental institution, because Nick was obviously playing her. Even when exasperated, her fellow houseguests act concerned. They want to help her. They want to inure her to the notion that Nick was using her so that she can move on.
In cinema, there is the trope of the wrongfully accused character that nobody believes. Harrison Ford in The Fugitive typifies this paradigm. He is erroneously convicted of murdering his wife and is forced to franticly uncover the true killer while evading the authorities.
Harrison Ford is GinaMarie. To the outside observer the evidence seems incontrovertible: The subject is guilty. However, reality has been inverted. What seems crazy is actually the truth. The conspiracy is real.
I believe you, GinaMarie. I believe in the sanctity of your bond with Nick. I know admitting this makes me sound insane by association; I don’t care. There’s no way I can change that. The populace will never truly understand. I’ll run beside you through subterranean passages until you reunite with Nick. Take my hand, and I won’t let them stop you.
But before we go, you have to do one thing for me: lose that damn chap-stick.
R is for Reconsider
Judging from her tenure in the Big Brother house, Aaryn Gries is not a pleasant person. OK, that is an understatement; Aaryn Gries is a hateful person, an all around deplorable human being. We’ve heard her make insensitive comments about African Americans, homosexuals, Asians, and women.[2]
But I’m not sure if she is actually racist.[3]
Merriam-Webster defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” Now, in that definition, there are two distinct clauses that one must pass to qualify as a racist: (a) stereotypical thinking, and (b) and the belief of genetic superiority.
She is, without question, guilty of extreme stereotypical thinking. The problem is she brazenly says things that we, as a society, have agreed should never be uttered under any circumstances. This is usually done in a performative manner, like she is attempting to be irreverently entertaining. Consider her Asian beautician impression. She does this like it’s a routine, as if this is her reoccurring Saturday Night Live character.
When she isn’t trying to be funny, she says these things to prod people. Think of how she taunts Candice with Shaniqua. These people are her enemies in the game. She says things to hurt people, and she will use anything that is available about someone’s personage to accomplish that. Either she doesn’t understand the implications of her comments, or she simply doesn’t care.
But as insensitive and problematic as stereotypical thinking is, it isn’t—in and of itself—racist. Does Aaryn champion the superiority of white people? Does she think that minorities are genetically inferior? As far as I can tell, there is no concrete evidence to support that claim. She is not signaling out minorities to evict from the house. Her main target has been Elissa, a white woman. Moreover, she initially believed Candice when Candice said she didn’t vote out David. Is that the behavior of a bona fide racist?
Aaryn is acrimonious with everyone in the house. She bickers with her friends. She regularly berated David, a man who—even whilst on the block—was singularly concerned with ingratiating himself to her. I don’t know that race is the culprit here; she has a difficult time relating to anyone.
When Aaryn says that she has black friends, the thing that I find dubious isn’t the race of her alleged friends, it’s that she has friends at all.
[1] “Lost inside adorable illusion, and I cannot hide. I'm the one you're using, please don't push me aside.”
[2] One of the most jarring things I’ve heard her say was actually about women! Aaryn believes that women shouldn’t question men, that women’s role in society should be more subservient. Somebody please send a copy of The Feminine Mystique into the Big Brother house stat!
[3] Obviously, I do not know what goes on inside the mind of this woman. This article is primarily concerned with questioning the reflexive belief that she is a racist. I am not excusing any of the odious comments she has made. I am merely suggesting that we view them through a different prism.
Let it also be said that I am not one of those people who thinks that racism is dead. Such a claim reeks of ignorance and is deleterious to the continued strides of minorities.
